A hearty congratulations to Heather Burgess, co-founder of Phillips Burgess Law Firm, a real estate, land use and environmental law firm based in Olympia and Tacoma, on being named ‘2017 Boss of the Year’ by the Thurston County Chamber of Commerce. I had the pleasure of working with them on updating their executive portraiture.

I was invited to present an Architectural Photography Workshop at the recent Professional Photographers of Washington Fall Conference held at the beautiful Davenport Hotel in downtown Spokane, Washington.

In spite of capturing 7 awards this Spring including 'Best of Show' and a Seventh 'Commercial Photographer of the Year' title I broke one of my golden rules and did not share out my fortune to the various business rags, pubs nor other B2B channels. Alas….

For those of you that know me, I am an eternal student of photography. A technical nut. An over-the-top perfectionist. Even after all these years after being 'baptized' at Brooks. It's in my dna.

As you know, over the years we bounce our efforts off our peers through competition…basically just to see what flies. The process is draining. One becomes too intimate with their images...often to the point of delirium. But we do it. Along the way I have been both blessed and cursed. Last year was a withered harvest. Nothing stuck. Only upon reflection did I realized I was going to a dry well. I was searching through my library of images for starting points -- with the intent of jazzing them up simply through technique. Bad recipe. But you learn more from failures than successes.

With renewed resolve I headed off in search of passion, the holy grail of creativity. Somehow along the way I happened upon Joel Grimes, a photographer in parallel orbit, whose message seemed to resonate. Joel's imagery and approach to the art of photography knocked me off my professional perch. More than just technically sound, his approach to the art of creating imagery was like a breath of fresh air. And so I took a risk and created some new imagery…some images with impact. Thankfully the jurors thought so.

Blood, Sweat, and Years

And so once again I was blessed in being awarded the Commercial Photographer of the Year Award, It was my 6th such title spanning the years 1995, 1996, 2001, 2004, 2010, & now 2013!